Common Myths About Food & Nutrition

Are you a person who believes low-fat foods are healthier than those with fat in them? Have you ever starved yourself or limited your calories thinking that if you did this, you would lose weight? It has become a common misconception that if people eat low calorie and fat-free foods they should be able to lose weight because they are eating less fat.

Although in theory, this sounds like a logical conclusion, nothing could be further from the truth! With that idea in mind, have you ever wondered whether the food in your kitchen that reflects those ideas is healthy to eat? It can be confusing to try and sift through all the information available on food and nutrition. So much is available. How do you know what to believe? Don’t worry, I’ll answer this question later on in this post.

Right now, let’s go over some of the most common myths about nutrition as well as detailed explanations as to why those are untrue.

Here’s a short quiz you can take to determine how nutritionally aware you are about the foods in your kitchen:

If you answered no to most of these, hopefully you are on the right track!

If you answered yes to more than 2 of these questions, it might be time to re-evaluate what you are keeping in your cupboards and refrigerator.

Here are some things you may not know about the food you eat:

Fats and cholesterol are healthy and necessary for your health. All humans need real, unadulterated fats in their diets. Fats contain some of the most necessary nutrients and enzymes for us to maintain all types of bodily functions – even more than many vegetables, believe it or not!

Butter is good for you! A slice of real butter is delicious, filling, and provides Vitamins A & D, and K, and also Omega 3 essential fatty acids – especially butter from healthy cows on pasture.

The kind of meat you eat is important – learn the differences between conventional and sustainable-raised, grass-fed meats. Conventional meat is really the culprit of many of our health problems. Animals in conventional environments are usually fed grain, soy. These animals are not made to eat these substances – but should be eating grass instead. As a result, animals become ill and often develop the pathogenic variety of E. coli and other diseases, are administered antibiotics to keep them from getting sick, are given growth hormones to make sure they grow fast enough to turn a profit quicker. The balance of Omega 6s to Omega 3s in conventional meat is grossly out of balance, and eating this kind of meat causes degenerative disease over time.

As a rule, supplements don’t replace healthy eating - but sometimes we need them, and if you are going to take them, good quality is critical!

Remember when grandma used to give you cod liver oil? Cod liver oil with butter oil is really good for you, and is an important source of Vitamins A & D. Cod liver oil with butter oil contains the important Vitamin K2 that is so lacking in much of our diets. Fermented cod liver oil is the best type of this oil to consume. Here is a great resource of information on the importance of cod liver oil in our diets.

Sprouted, soaked, and fermented grains, nuts, and seeds are more digestible to the human body. However, grains have been the cause of many modern health issues from weight gain and heart disease to behavior disorders and autism, to bone problems and digestive disorders of many kinds. Wonder why so many people have wheat and food allergies, and why obesity, heart disease, and other illnesses are so prevalent? In modern times, the grains most of us consume are processed and extruded. Extrusion involves grains being forced through a very small hole in a machine and subjected to extremely high temperatures, which damages the grain. For thousands and thousands of years, our ancestors prepared grains by soaking and sprouting to increase the digestibility of these foods. When eaten sparingly and properly prepared, grains, nuts and seeds can be a part of a healthy diet. Still, some people cannot tolerate grains at all for any reason. You might be one of those people. Read this post: The truth about wheat and grains: are they good for your health? Also read The big gluten-free lie which talks about why gluten-free products often aren’t a better choice.

Cheap food is not really cheap – cheap foods are full of chemicals and toxins, and are not really food – so you can eat it all day and not be full. We are seeing more and more of these foods on recall lists every day. Eating these kinds of foods will actually result in a net deficiency of nutrients stored in your body. We also pay more for these foods when we are taxed in the form of government subsidies. The more cheap, processed foods you eat, you will spend more money for conventional health care costs, medication, etc. and you’ll end up spending more anyway.

The Food Pyramid (designed by the USDA) actually tells us to eat the wrong foods! UPDATE: As of Summer 2011, the USDA changed their recommendations yet again. The Food Pyramid has now been discarded and in its place is now My Plate – an even more ambiguous and vague recommendation about what we should eat to be healthy. These new recommendations say absolutely nothing about healthy fats, which are absolutely critical to all aspects of health.

The most unhealthy oils to consume are those that are promoted by the medical/health/food industries, and also are the cheapest (such as canola, corn, sunflower, peanut, cottonseed, and soybean) - and you will find these everywhere you look : in grocery stores, restaurants, and in processed foods everywhere. These oils are deodorized, subjected to high-heat temperatures, and are usually rancid by the time they reach the shelf. They are also often from genetically-modified sources and contain too much Omega 6 essential fatty acids which cause inflammation and disease. They contain polyunsaturated fats that are easily damaged in cooking. They are not traditional fats and should be avoided at all costs.

The healthiest oils are virgin and extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and palm oils from a sustainable-source. These oils are extremely healthy and contain various nutritious elements. Coconut oil is high in healthy saturated fat and lauric acid which helps the body deal with viruses and bacteria such as influenza, herpes, cytomegalovirus, and even serious auto-immune disorders such as HIV. It is a great natural antifungal and antibacterial food. Olive oil contains monounsaturated fat (Omega 9 essential fatty acid, and helps to maintain balance between Omega 3s and 6s), and antioxidant value (from Vitamin E). It helps to keep digestion healthy to prevent colon cancer and gallstone issues. Palm oil is a healthy saturated fat and also contains the ever important cancer-protecting Vitamin E, which is also critical for protecting arteries and brain cells. Best bets for oils are are organic, cold-pressed, extra virgin, unfiltered, handcrafted, and sustainable-produced.

Soy is not a health food unless it is in fermented form. Ninety percent or more of soy sold on the market is highly-processed, industrial waste – and beyond that can cause severe disruptions in the body in the reproductive, digestive, endocrine, nervous, and cardiovascular systems. Soy milk, cheese, fake meats, most tofu and soy sauces, soy “mayonnaise”, and soy filler ingredients you will find on the market are not good for your health, despite the claims made by food companies on labels. Natto, tempeh, and miso that are naturally fermented are good choices for health.

Table salt is an industrial waste product - the heating process during refinement takes temperatures upward toward 1200 degrees in processing, which destroys the majority of naturally-occurring elements. Mostly comprised of sodium chloride and no more than one or two other elements, table salt is toxic to our bodies. Unrefined sea salt has a balance of trace minerals our bodies need, which we currently don’t get from many of the foods we eat. Because conventional farming methods destroy our soil and mineral levels, the earth becomes depleted of many important nutrients that would otherwise greatly improve the nutritional content of foods that are grown (produce, grains, legumes, etc.) and raised to graze (animals for meat and meat products). The best choice is a good quality unrefined sea salt. Read this post about how the food industry labels products with terms like “low-sodium” or “no salt” as a way to convince you they are healthier than their sodium-filled counterparts.

Overwhelmed? Confused? You are not alone!

Manufacturing and processing methods remove nutrients from foods and denature them so that our bodies cannot recognize those substances. Modern food processing uses heat, pressure, and industrially-produced oils and fats to make foods more convenient and easier to package and sell. If your digestive system cannot absorb something, it will have a difficult time delivering something nutritious that will actually do your body benefit. What’s more, these foods can actually increase the toxin load and deplete existing nutrients, which cause long-term health problems.

Remember at the beginning of this post – I asked a very important question -how do you know what to believe?

When you aren’t sure, a good rule of thumb to follow is that if your grandmother doesn’t know what it is, you probably shouldn’t be eating it! People have eaten real, traditional foods for thousands of years and survived very well.

It’s only been in the last 160 years or so that human beings have developed processing and automation to mass produce packaged foods. And yet since that time, disease rates and illnesses have changed considerably. For example, our records in the study of heart disease show that death from heart problems was a rare occurrence in pre-industrial societies.

Since the advent of the Industrial Revolution (19th century), the incidence of heart disease began to increase sharply, and since then more people have died from heart-related disease. If you are a person that needs statistical data to be convinced, just take a look at this graph of statistics on heart disease from Google showing heart disease rates since the 1860s to now. It’s quite startling to see the change in this disease since that time on this graph.

If you are new to real and traditional foods, here are some great starter articles that can help you understand all the different types of foods, what to buy and what to avoid:

Great post! Unfortunately, most of the foods that my grandparents recognize as healthy are the very foods that you and I put on our “inedible” list. It feels a bit Twilight Zone-ish when I try to convince my grandfather, who has heart disease, diabetes, and a history of cancer, to switch to pastured butter and away from canola oil.

One thing I’ve found curious lately is the concept of calorie restriction (as you mentioned above in starving and counting calories). Recently, I kept a food journal for a week to have a better idea of what I was eating. I found that I usually consume around 1500 calories, even though I never restrict my intake of food. Over half of my calories come from fat, so it should be difficult to keep my calories low, but as it is, I eat all that I want and still have what most nutritionists would consider a “restricted calorie intake.” Additionally, I’m not losing weight even though I’m about 1000 calories under my so-called “maintenance” intake. The calorie question is one that confuses me, even with all of my training.

@ Chandelle – Calories baffle me! I’ve been on Matt Stones (from 180 degrees health) HED (High everything diet) for the past two months. I eat close to 3,000 calories a day, about 1,000 over what I should eat to lose weight, and I’ve lost 20 pounds! I’ve dropped two pant sizes and I feel great!

A great article with important information. Like Tiffany, I wish my family would believe it. We’ve been slowly switching over to a more nourishing and real diet. It’s amazing the difference my husband and I feel!

Robin – I think it’s incredible the testimonies I hear from people who report how the weight melts away and they feel great when they eat all the things we have been told for the last 30 – 40 years to avoid. This really ought to say something to those who are skeptical, and who have tried to lose weight and gain health, unsuccessfully, on low-fat and processed food diets.

Chandelle – it is baffling how our grandparents and parents, who should have grown up on real food, can defend such industrial staples like margarine, shortening, and canola and other vegetable oils. But then when you consider the history of shortening alone, it began with Proctor and Gamble in the late 19th century, and was created as an alternative for soap and candles to be made (where previously it was lard) because it was a money-saving invention, and then it turned into a brand-new invention to replace lard, which was far too expensive for most people to afford anymore. Crisco began marketing it and replaced it in all their cookbooks in recipes where most people would have used lard and tallow. And from there, the rest is history. The whole evolution of these fake products is quite insidious, but lengthy in comparison to the span of our lives, nonetheless.

The calorie scenario is very interesting too. I have never counted calories a single day in my life, but it would be interesting to know just how much I am consuming. Sometimes I think, even with the amount of fat I eat, that I’m probably not eating enough. I tend to get lazy about fixing meals in the middle of the day since our biggest meals tend to be breakfast and dinner (which is a no-no, since the biggest meal of the day should be lunch)…but I do admittedly grow weary sometimes, of cooking three meals each day. I try to add to my daily intake coconut oil, cheese, and extra butter every chance I get or think about it. I eat a lot of grass-fed meats, poultry, eggs, and other proteins too.

I think the main thing is to eat until your are full, and beyond that, don’t worry too much (unless you are trying to lose weight) – and maybe that’s a sign that you need to eat more fat. I’m not sure. I’ve always had the problem of being underweight my whole life – which is also strange given the fact that a lot of my years were spent eating horrible fats and processed foods. Although the heaviest I’ve ever been was right before I got pregnant and had been eating probably the worst I’d ever eaten during my lifetime. I think I was a size 7 at the time. I think my metabolism has been pretty screwed up most of my life from my poor eating habits. Since changing my diet over the last 5 years, my weight has been better and mostly stable.

Alex – thanks much for the link, I have been meaning to go check out your site. I appreciate your comments and visit!

Great post. I have been living this way for many years and have been reinforced in my beliefs by working with several Naturopaths. I first came across this information reading Sally Fallon and Mary Enigs book, Nourishing Traditions. I recommend anyone who is trying to get this message across to family and friends offer them the option of reading the first chapter- about 80 pages. It is clear, and a more in-depth review of the same great points that Raine mentions. Viva real food!

I agree with your answers to almost everything, except this question:
“Do you maintain a vegan diet?”

I think it’s entirely possible to eat a very healthful vegan diet, especially if it includes lots of fruits that co-evolved with animals, so that the seeded fruits and the seed-dispersing animals both benefit from the relationship.

I’m talking especially about fresh raw non-sweet fruit like red bell peppers, tomatoes, avocados, and cucumbers. They make delicious and very nutritious salads.

There are too many people telling us what is good for us. The food pyramid – Bah! Low fat diets – Bah! Drugs for lowering cholesterol blood levels – Bah! Use formula, don’t breastfeed – Bah! Chemical saturated disposable diapers – bah! Everything from what food to eat to circumcising our babies is driven by some special interest. We need to take back our bodies.

I love the advice: “a good rule of thumb to follow is that if your grandmother doesn’t know what it is, you probably shouldn’t be eating it!”

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